New York Could Adopt 'Textalyzer' Device For Busting Distracted Drivers

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (C) announces a new bill with tougher penalties for texting while driving at a press conference at the Javits convention center on May 31, 2013 in New York City. The governor proposed additional penalties for young and new drivers ahead of the summer school break. (Credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

Legislation that's working its way through Albany could allow New York authorities to check drivers' phones for signs of distraction following an accident, and to impose penalties for refusing that could burden drivers down the road.

A bill that would legalize the use of "textazlyer" devices for determining activity on drivers' phones is seeing bipartisan support from New York lawmakers, WGRZ Buffalo reported. If passed, it could make New York the first state to implement the technology for catching distracted drivers, who contributed to more than 10,000 traffic fatalities in the last year alone, according to WGRZ.

Now moving through senate and assembly committees, the bill would require drivers who've been involved in an accident to let authorities scan their phones for evidence of recent use, or face penalties and license suspension, both at the time and later on, if they refuse. Once developed, the field test could allow officers to quickly generate a time-stamped report on which applications were running and whether drivers were using devices 'hands on' or 'hands free'-style around the time of the accident, according to NPR.

State Senator Mike Ranzenhofer (R-Amherst), who co-sponsored the bill, told WGRZ that a textalyzer tool would not access other content on the phone, nor be able to read text messages, for example, that drivers may have sent or received on the road. Ranzehofer also said the bill could be passed in the legislature by the end of its current session, which concludes next month, and assured WGRZ, "If the device was trolling through your information, I would not be in support of it."

The Berry family speaks at an Allstate event for National Distracted Driving Awareness Month in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. (Credit: Erich Schlegel/AP Images for Allstate)

Ranzenhofer told WGRZ that, in New York's case, the device would only determine if drivers had been tapping and swiping on phones. According to NPR, however, such technology could be tailored in its limits or breadth to fit the laws developed by each state, meaning field tests could also reveal what apps were recently used on drivers' phones (potentially embarrassing as that may be).

In New York, the legislation would be known as Evan's Law, named for 19-year-old Evan Lieberman, who was killed in a 2011 car crash that was later found to be the result of distracted driving. His father Ben Lieberman told NPR he'd "found out the hard way" after his son's death that obtaining driver phone records after an accident can be "an agonizing process."

"We often hear, 'just get a warrant' or 'just get the phone records,' [implying] that the warrant is like filling out some minor form ... In New York, it involves a D.A. and a judge. Imagine getting a D.A. and a judge involved in every breathalyzer that's administered," he told NPR. Once obtained, such records only show activities like calls and texts, Lieberman said, but not whether drivers were checking email, browsing Twitter, or using any number of other popular apps and platforms.

Recently, Lieberman and representatives of Cellebrite, an Israeli tech developer, demonstrated the textalyzer system they've been working on before lawmakers in New York. CBS New York reported that Cellebrite hopes to finish the technology in around nine months, and said the final product will be designed to protect drivers' data by only seeking evidence of activity on their phones. “For this device, the whole purpose is not to get any data,” said Jim Grady, CEO of Cellebrite USA, to CBS. “So no, police won’t be able to, unless they rewrite our code.”

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Nevertheless, privacy advocates and experts have already expressed concern over the bill, which could make New York the site of real-world test-driving for the technology. In addition to worries about drivers' privacy, critics have noted that pinning down the exact moment of an accident--or, if multiple people are in the car, who's been using the phone--could be quite difficult for law enforcement. Rashida Richardson of the New York Civil Liberties Union told CBS, "There’s no guarantee a device like that would be able to scan a phone without collecting private information on one’s phone and there is also no way to ensure accuracy.”

Depending on the final product, the bill may also force drivers who, for whatever reason, want to protect their privacy by refusing to surrender phones to face some difficult decisions. According to the bill, everyone operating a motor vehicle which "has been involved in an accident or collision involving damage to real or personal property, personal injury, or death, and who has in his [sic] possession at or near the time of such accident or collision, a mobile telephone or electronic device," would be required to submit such device or devices for on-the-spot field testing upon authorities' request.

If a driver refuses to surrender their phone for 'textalyzing,' they could be subject to a variety of consequences under the bill, starting with the immediate suspension of their driver's license. In such case, "The police officer will inform the driver that the person's license or permit to drive and any non-resident operating privilege shall be immediately suspended and subsequently revoked," the bill explains, while the record of refusal itself "shall be admissible in any trial, proceeding, or hearing" based on a violation of related distracted driving laws, and makes drivers vulnerable to higher fees and heavier punishment later on--all of which could weigh particularly heavily on low-income drivers, those whose employment relies on having an active license, and other disproportionately targeted groups.

According to the Tennessee Law Blog, similar technology is already being used by the FBI, while a number of states are also eyeing the system as a way to bring down the large number of U.S. road fatalities each year.